The present invention relates to vehicles having surface means for developing increased propulsion efficiency by reducing of opposing forces acting on the vehicle.
In the development of different crafts for land, air and water transport, significant effort is directed toward the streamlining of the body. Thus, generally it is assumed that the movement of the craft through the air or water requires the movement of the medium over the surface. Streamlined leading surfaces are provided for gradually moving of the air or water laterally aside to minimize the build up of a compacted mass of the fluid. The forward wall does, of course, because of impacting or smashing into the medium, develop a relatively forward compacted mass and opposing pressure, with the streamlined angular orientation of smooth surfaces providing for the mass to slip off the vehicle's surface and rearwardly from the vehicle. This, however, does result in the medium being carried along the surface and thereby creating a drag characteristic. Further, it is well known in the art particularly as applies to land vehicles and the like, the movement of the compacted mass results in the creation of a reduced pressure at rear end of the moving vehicle. This, of course, in essence creates further drag on the vehicle tending to prevent the forward propulsion and further creating a source of inefficiency.
Although streamlined surfaces have been widely developed, and do in fact contribute to improved efficiency, the present inventor has realized that the prior art approach is only directed toward reducing the effect of the impact forces.
In the inventor's copending application entitled "Jet Screen for Vehicles" which was filed Aug. 30, 1974 with Ser. No. 502,048, a unique concept is disclosed which is based on the unique teaching of developing of an air screen in front of the vehicle to essentially eliminate impact conditions over the forward wall surfaces and thereby significantly increasing the efficiency of the vehicle operation. As more fully disclosed in such application, a powered blower or pump means is provided for continuously developing a moving air jet screen in front of the forward moving wall and which is directed generally normal to the direction of movement and continuously. The jet screen carries the air or water from directly in front of the front wall of the craft just outwardly of the configuration of the craft and thereby significantly minimizes the degree of the impact reaction. Thus the continuous jet stream in essence develops a continuously opening window of a significantly minimized pressure or fluid condition through which the vehicle moves. The diverted air or water, of course, closes behind the craft. This system does not therefore rely on deflection of the impacting air or water over the surface but rather employs a relatively high velocity jet to eliminate impact conditions. As more fully disclosed in such application, the preferred embodiments include various powered blower or pump means for developing of the jet screen in front of various crafts such as land vehicles, aircraft and watercraft. Although the teaching of that invention provides significant increased efficiency of the various crafts, the specific embodiments require special power supplies such as air and water pumps and the like with special directing mechanism. Furthermore, as it is not possible to completely generate and remove all of the medium from in front of the impacting surfaces, as a practical matter, some impacting phenomena occur with the consequent disadvantages associated with the conventional designs.
Applicant analysis has further indicated various means can be developed to employ the relative air movement created by the vehicle to generate desirable airflow with respect to the vehicle surfaces and particularly that various wave-shaped surface configurations can be applied to the vehicle to generate a jet screen and further minimize the conventional retarding forces on the craft.